Numerical Model for Uniform Microwave-Assisted Continuous Flow Process of Biodiesel Production

The aim of this work is to present a model of reaction tube with cross structures in order to improve biodiesel production rate and microwave heating uniformity. A commercial finite element software, COMSOL Multiphysics 4.3a (Newton, MA), is used to build the proposed model for a BJ-22 rectangular waveguide system. Maxwell's equations, heat conduction equation, reaction kinetics equation and Navier-Stokes equation are coupled to describe the continuous flow process. The results show the electric field intensity distributions at different initial velocities have little difference, which means the initial velocity will have the decisive influence on the heating process.